The United Nations human rights watchdog has issued a damning report, criticising what it describes as the cruel and degrading treatment of refugees in Australia. The UN Human Rights Committee wants the government to release the detainees, help in their rehabilitation, and pay compensation. The Federal Government says it will carefully consider the report before formulating a response.

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: Refugee advocates want the Federal Government to immediately release people who've received an adverse security assessment and been held in indefinite detention.

The UN human rights watchdog has issued a damning report which criticised what it describes as the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of asylum seekers.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee wants the Government to release the detainees, help in their rehabilitation, and to pay compensation.

The Federal Government says it will carefully consider the report before formulating any a response.

Ashley Hall reports from Canberra.

ASHLEY HALL: The case involves two complaints lodged in 2011 and 2012 covering 46 people recognised as refugees but denied a visa and held in detention because the spy agency ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) deemed them a security risk. They asked the committee for help to get out.

NIGEL RODLEY: Not only do they not have any grounds for challenging the continuing detention because they don't know what it is that's alleged against them when it's a security determination, the fact that it's indefinite as well has had serious psychological effects on them.

And so it's not just an issue of arbitrary detention, which would be serious enough, but it really amounts to prohibited ill-treatment of the people who have been put in this situation.

ASHLEY HALL: The committee's findings are, as I understand it, non-binding. How confident are you that the Australian Government will take them seriously and not simply thumb their nose at the committee?

NIGEL RODLEY: We're not just a self-selecting bunch of individuals. We're the people set up by the state in order to reach decisions like this. And it would be a disrespect to the institution not to take it seriously I think.

JANE MCADAM: Internationally it's highly embarrassing for a country like Australia to have the UN Human Rights Committee say something like this.

ASHLEY HALL: Jane McAdam is a professor of law at the University of New South Wales.

JANE MCADAM: This is, it's certainly not the first time that the UN Human Rights Committee has expressed the view that Australia's mandatory detention regime and indefinite detention constitutes a violation of human rights law. Australia's response has been to say, well, that's how we do things here. But Australia has voluntarily committed itself to these standards through its ratification of human rights treaty.

ASHLEY HALL: The former immigration ombudsman Allan Asher is doubtful the Government will follow the committee's recommendations.

ALLAN ASHER: So far they've shown a singular lack of an ability to understand what the courts have said, what every prominent judicial body in Australia have said and I don't suppose they'll change their minds now.

ASHLEY HALL: Well, I guess the Government would argue that they have a responsibility to national security to ensure that these people who are found to be a security risk aren't in the community. How do you put to rest those concerns?

ALLAN ASHER: In order to deprive somebody of their liberty, there should be some ability for an individual to test the evidence against them.

ASHLEY HALL: A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the Government will carefully consider the committee's views and respond within the six months allowed. She says the Government is actively looking for a solution to the problem.